It is 3:30 a.m. election day morning, and I am still up, "fired up" actually, from the final rally for Barack Obama’s historic campaign. I’m having some trouble loading my pix from the event, but will post anyway with some internet video instead, to share my story of this incredible event.
But back to the beginning. I was headed home on the train Friday evening when I found buried in the Post Metro section a squib saying that the Obama campaign had selected Northern Virginia for its Election Eve rally. While I found little more information that night, I started to get excited and wrote a diary about what I viewed as a very symbolic venue near the Manassas Civil War Battlefield, an area also the focus of current immigration and racial tensions. I had the feeling that this last rally could be a very big deal.
Skipping way ahead now, it sure was! Obama’s flight from North Carolina was delayed, so it was 10:30 p.m. before he spoke, but the first thing he did was greet the "hundred thousand" souls gathered.
I had been wondering about the number, because the last time I saw so many human beings in one spot it was at a football game at the U. Michigan "Big House" – which holds 106,000. And the folks tonight were sober!
Here is the story of my sojourn tonight, one I will always remember.
My camera is a piddly little Olympus, but I packed it up with my cell phone, some sodas, and a cake I’d taken out of the freezer and thawed and sliced, thinking we might have a long wait in line and it would be good to feed people (yeah, I"m one of those feeder people). Despite the rush hour traffic, I got to the Fairgrounds shortly after 4pm and got a close-in parking spot. Everyone was smiling and nodding as we walked toward the Fairground.
I’d missed my lunch, so I was thrilled to see an impromptu barbeque stand on the corner [picture to come]. I got in line for pulled pork. Behind me was a white middle-aged married couple– she had to dash back to her car for her cell-phone, so the gentleman and I started a polite conversation. Turns out his wife had just finished canvassing 90 houses and then they had driven down from Maryland for the rally! As we talked, two striking black women behind us, Eleanor and DeVernon, joined the conversation. They had both been canvassing that day also. The wait for pulled pork was spent in animated conversation.
Ken invited me to follow him to meet his wife Betsy, who had skipped the lunch stand to go find friends already in line. They graciously introduced me to their friends, Gail, a vegetarian caterer, Michaela, a recent public health graduate in search of a job, and Carla, soon to be featured on Top Chef (and a couple others whose names are escaping me!). I had ended up having to come alone to the rally, so I was grateful for their warm greetings. But Ken and Betsy then advised that they all actually had seats up ON THE STAGE, and weren’t sure I could join them. Betsy even made some calls to try to include me, but I was not surprised that the tight security rules precluded this. With a couple quick exchanges of business cards, I peeled off into the line starting to snake about a ½ mile along the road to the Fairground entrance.
[Note: as it turns out, the lucky stiffs on stage actually got to MEET Obama:
I’m so glad for the folks I met that they got this opportunity, but DANG, SO CLOSE!]
One woman walking on the street beside me, a middle-aged black woman with about a half-dozen friends, stopped to have her picture taken in the road in front of the cross-road sign – Dumfries Ave. and Old Dominion Rd. A tee-shirt vendor along the road called out "McCain-Palin tee-shirts" as he proudly hawked his Obama wares and fielded lots of surprised looks and grins. All along the way Obama volunteers passed out flyers and cards soliciting more volunteers.
Turning the corner into the homestretch toward security, a female volunteer advised us that we could not bring in any food or drink other than water, and pointed us to a line of trash cans. My cake! I had about 30 slices of a yummy yeast cake studded with raisins and orange peel. I handed her the entire bag, offering it all to the volunteers as snacks. She immediately turned and called out to the others "Look, we have cake!" They looked happy, so I was glad; I got to feed some hungry people after all.
Security was careful but speedy. There were sausage and funnel cake stands inside, midway on a sloping field that led down to the stage where my new acquaintances of the past hour would be sitting. I looked for them, but they weren’t seated yet, so I milled around, just talking to people and trying to decide where I wanted to be. My first resting place was about four rows off the fence facing the stage area, but there was a huge light just across the way that I was sure would spoil any photos of the podium and stage. But I met this young lady there, so proud of her Obama button and her peace sign (pic to come).
As more people came in behind us, a short middle-aged woman next to me asked if I would mind her space while she went to see if a friend had found a better spot. Of course I agreed, and I impulsively asked that if she found a better spot would she come let me know, as I was there on my own. And she did! She led me around to a spot just a few rows off the dividing fence but farther around, with a more head-on view of the podium. As we introduced ourselves, I learned that Kathy and her friend Chris have volunteered together for the American Cancer Society for over 13 years.
Kathy also told me en route to the new spot that Obama’s mother "Toot" had just died. We talked quietly among ourselves and with the people around us about how sad it was she missed the actual election.
We ended up sitting on the ground, as it was still over three hours before the program started at 9pm, and we met our neighbors. One beautiful black woman we all agreed look remarkably like Michele Obama! (pic to come)
Police sharp-shooters set up a post on the roof of an outbuilding right next to where we were. Biggest guns and biggest binoculars I ever saw! (pic to come)
Then a local band came out, featuring a sax player, a keyboardist, and four young male singers. By the time they warmed up the crowed and started playing "Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand; Make This World a Better Place, If You Can" the hands went up and out, and I found myself holding a very young man’s hand as he rode on the shoulders of a relative. (Incredible pic to come!) We were having fun.
By this time, the field where we were had filled, and now the hill behind the food area started to fill as well.
An invocation was followed by a truly lovely rendition of our National Anthem, followed by welcomes from the local field organizer and Matt Kaine, the 18-year old son of Governor Tim Kaine, who with emotion in his voice asked for a show of hands by first-time voters. There were a goodly number. Here is a snippet interview with one:
With Obama’s plane delayed, further welcomes came from Judy Feder and Gerry Connolly, who told a horrible joke about Hillary Clinton, Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin that I won’t repeat. Here is a view of the incredible crowd during his (thankfully inaudible) remarks:
Scotty Cooper also welcomed the crowd, which as the video above shows completely filled the Fairgrounds. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner then appeared, and, at long last, introduced Barack Obama.
I cannot begin to describe what the noise was like from 100,000 people all screaming for Obama as he walked out from behind the stage area and just stopped and waved a bit en route to the podium. It was like having your flesh turned to sound, it just permeated everything.
Obama spoke for about 45 minutes, mostly the same policy statements we’ve heard before, working from the "ground up," the hard work need to fix the economy, reducing taxes on the middle-class, health care, the environment, the Iraq War. Obama also asked how many in the crowd were first-time voters and I think close to 10% of the hands in our area went up. Looks like those "expanded poll" numbers may be the ones to trust after all. Obama promised that, in order to invest in education for our youth, he would ensure that any young person who gave a year to public service in their communities or in national service would "absolutely" be given a way to afford an education. First time I had heard that said so definitively.
And then he closed with a story. About impulsively promising to go to Greenwood South Carolina in order to obtain a desired endorsement, and then later having to leave his hotel at 6am after arriving in NC at 1am the night before, and waking to a bad NYT story and a rainstorm that blew apart his umbrella. The paltry gathering in Greenwood seemed disinterested until a loud voice behind Obama cried "Fired UP!" All the folks in the room repeated the mantra. Followed by "Ready to Go?", duly echoed by the room. Obama said he turned and saw behind him a short woman, no more than 5 foot tall, about 60, in a "church hat" who was a Greenwood Town Council member known for her "chants." After a few more rounds of her exhortations, he said he actually began to FEEL fired up, and then he led us in several round-robins of these two chants, and a renewed plea to get out the vote tomorrow, no matter what.
Here it is in his words:
Fired Up? Ready to Go? Oh yes.
As Obama reminded us last night, "it all starts tomorrow."
But now it is TODAY! TIME TO VOTE!!